1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the fields of waste disposal and underwater rocketry.
2. Description of Prior Art
Construction of containers intended for at-sea disposal of hazardous waste is a known art. For example, Quase, (U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,108) discloses a compressible container for deep-sea disposal of hazardous materials. Haynes, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,509) discloses a container in which waste is packed in a wettable material which thereby becomes incompressible.
It is preferable to bury such materials beneath the nominal ocean floor, for example, in pelagic clay sediments or the deep terrigenous sediments that accumulate near continental rises so as to isolate the disposed waste from environmental changes and human accessibility. Wisotsky, Sr. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,353) discloses an apparatus for storing hazardous waste in containers that are driven into the seabed. Deese (“Nuclear Power and Radioactive Waste—A Sub-Seabed Disposal Option”) discloses and Myers (U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,066) enhances a method for driving canisters into the seabed by means of a free-falling ballistic penetrator. Explosive means have also been disclosed for driving anchors and containers into the seabed. Others have specified burying containers in drilled holes located in subduction zones along tectonic plate boundaries (Krutenat, U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,109).
On land, some (Bottillo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,564) have proposed dissolving and diluting nuclear waste in surface lava lakes, however active volcanoes tend to eventually disgorge their contents into the surrounding environment so even if proven practical is likely politically impractical. Lava-lake disposal would seem analogous to current nuclear industry practice of vitrifying high-level (radioactive) waste (HLW) in borosilicate glass, however without careful subsequent storage.
Reduction of water friction drag by interposition of a gas layer between vessel and water is a known art, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,865 Eichenberger and U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,992 J. G. Lee.